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Megatower Watch: Midtown Giant One Vanderbilt (Mostly) Wows at Landmarks

Rendering of One Vanderbilt to the left and Grand Central to the right, looking north from 42nd Street up Vanderbilt Avenue. Image courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. As currently proposed, supertall tower One Vanderbilt will rise to 1,350 feet—1,450 at its peak—to become the city’s second-tallest building. But its top wasn’t the focus of today’s Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing. It was its bottom. The LPC met today, not to rule on the proposed office …

Rumormongering: Real estate agents in Rancho Mirage,…

Real estate agents in Rancho Mirage, Calif., are convinced that President Barack Obama has purchased an 8,200-square-foot contemporary currently in contract for $4.25M. The White House has denied the rumor, but if it were true, it would make the First Family neighbors with White House decorator Michael Smith. Curbed National has more. Curbed National

Construction Watch: 55 Photos Inside the Hudson Yards Construction Site

By the end of 2018, half of the 28-acre Hudson Yards megaproject will have sprouted on Manhattan’s west side, though right now, the site largely still looks like the active rail yard that it is, save for the beginnings of the complex’s first tower. But the 30 active train tracks are slowly being covered by a massive platform that will hold three towers, a retail complex, a six-acre public square, and a new cultural space—and that’s just phase 1. Developer Related Companies …

Sales Check: Sterling Mason’s Penthouse B Scores Full $23 Million Ask

Things are going really well over at the Sterling Mason at 71 Laight Street, where 18 of its 32 apartments are in contract following the building’s July 2013 launch. Newly included in the jamboree, the building’s largest home, Penthouse B, which just went into contract for the full ask of $23 million, TRD reports. The six-bedroom, five-bathroom apartment is a 5,620-square-foot duplex that partially occupies its top two floors, and has three powder rooms, a fireplace, a 2,625-square-foot private terrace, library, and media room. The apartment’s sale price roughly translates to $4,004-per-square-foot, and although its the building’s most expensive apartment by price tag, Penthouse A has so far commanded the building’s most expensive price per …

Broker Secrets: A writer for the Guardian…

A writer for the Guardian claims to have come into possession of the training manual given to new brokers at an unidentified New York City brokerage. It includes such pearls of wisdom as “WORRY ABOUT THE APARTMENT LATER … JUST GET THE CLIENTS INTO THE OFFICE,” and “Please do not date clients until after we rent them and collect the broker’s fee.” So, basically, exactly what you would expect. Guardian

Sold Stuff: Buyers Pick Up 177-Year-Old Chelsea Townhouse for Gut Reno

One man, Clement Clarke Moore, has two claims to fame: writing “The Night Before Christmas” and, also, totally creating the neighborhood of Chelsea. In the 1800s, Moore split up and sold off his grandfather’s estate, which dominated the area (and gave it its name), and began developing the surrounding blocks. Fast forward 200 years, and a scrap of Moore’s grandfather’s land—holding an 1836-built house at 354 West 20th Street, between Eighth and Ninth avenues—hit the market in January, asking $6.25 million. According to public records, a pair of buyers, Keith Cackowsky and Rachel Schnipper, just picked it up for $6.2 million. The rather rundown, five-…

Development Watch: Vacant Wooster Street Lot to Get Six-Story Mixed-Use Building

Rendering and construction shots via NY YIMBY. A new metal, wood, and brick mixed-use building is rising on the corner of Wooster and Broome streets in the Soho Cast Iron District. YIMBY first spotted the incoming building designed by Arpad Baksa that will bring a six-story structure with five floor-through apartments and ground floor retail to the formerly vacant site. The building that’s contextually designed to blend into the neighborhood won the approval of

Shitshows: The basement of a McKibbin…

The basement of a McKibbin Lofts building has been hit with a partial vacate order for its illegally converted apartments. A sign posted on the door begins, “The Department of Buildings has determined that conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life.” And in the comments section of the Gothamist post, ex-residents share horror stories of their days spent in the infamous Bushwick shitshow. Gothamist; previously

Linkage: Greenpoint Ferry to Reopen; NYC is Country’s Unhappiest City

Curbed Flickr Pool / Jodie Dobson · Someone’s making a film about the horse carriage industry NYDN · Greenpoint ferry will reopen with G train outage Crain’s · Median prices on new Williamsburg properties surge DNA · A “surrender” flag appears on the Brooklyn Bridge Gothamist · You too can improve your local park TLD · Shocker: study finds that NYC is country’s unhappiest city NYP · More history on free-standing West Village home GVSHP · Rudin buys development rights for possible FiDi conversion TRD

CurbedWire: West Chelsea Rental Hosts Art Park; 171 N. 10th 50% Leased

171 North 10th Street WILLIAMSBURG—People who want to live in Williamsburg are snapping up those “very Williamsburg rentals” at 171 North 10th Street. The 20-unit building launched leasing 12 days ago, and half of the units have been taken. The studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, some of which have terraces have rents ranging from $2,385 to $6,695. CurbedWire Inbox; previously WEST CHELSEA/MIDTOWN WEST—Developer Related, which is responsible for such megaprojects as Hudson Yards and giant …

Tuesday Blogwrap

Film Brimming With Ditmas Park Hits Theaters This Friday Ditmas Park Corner Crown Heights Comedian Takes on Gentrification in Series of… Read More… Read More